


In the Aftermath

by Welcome_to_Latveria



Series: Kristoff Von Doom [4]
Category: Fantastic Four (Comicverse), Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Drama, Family Feels, Father-Son Relationship, Friendship, Kristoff has adopted a new sibling and its Luna, Parenthood, Platonic Relationships, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:00:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26514856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welcome_to_Latveria/pseuds/Welcome_to_Latveria
Summary: Whilst dealing with the fallout of his father knowing about Nathaniel Richards, Kristoff has to welcome a new guest to Castle Doom - Quicksilver's daughter, Luna Maximoff.
Relationships: Kristoff Vernard & Luna Maximoff, Kristoff Vernard & Victor von Doom, Pietro Maximoff & Kristoff Vernard
Series: Kristoff Von Doom [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1694635
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	In the Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> Translations from ROMLEX (Kalderaš dialect):  
> pralořo - little brother

Victor Von Doom has known the truth of Kristoff’s parentage for over a week now and yet he’s still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

_It can’t be this easy_ ; that’s what he tells himself, because there’s no way he spent the majority of his life terrified of Victor’s reaction for no reason… right? Maybe his father is just biding his time, waiting for a moment when Kristoff’s connection to Nathaniel Richards may become of use to him. _Yes… that must be what he’s doing – that sounds much more like my father._

He pushes that thought out of his mind, it is no good to worry about things that may not even happen – better to focus on the things that _will_ be happening.

One such thing is that his father has somehow managed to talk Quicksilver – Pietro Maximoff – into spying on Krakoa for him. Kristoff is not particularly sure how Victor managed this, but the two men seem to have come to some sort of agreement which involves the education of Pietro’s daughter at the Latverian School of Science which is suitably equipped for dealing with children who have powers – mutant or otherwise. Though of course Kristoff is also sure that Pietro has his own reasons for agreeing to aid them – reasons which undoubtedly stem from his desire to antagonise his own father, Magneto. These are the sort of reasons Kristoff can relate to, and it makes the man more trustworthy in his eyes; Victor does not trust the man, of course, but then his father has never trusted anyone in his life. No doubt he is already concocting a bunch of plans to combat Quicksilver’s powers if the occasion were ever to arise in which he needed to incapacitate the mutant.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that Pietro’s daughter is going to be staying with Kristoff and his family whilst she attends school in their country and whilst her father is busy running reconnaissance for them in Krakoa. He is feeling optimistic about such a change to his family’s daily routine; his father has been disturbing him lately by going out of his way to act _nice_ in what Kristoff thinks is an attempt to lull him into a false sense of security. Truly it is the worst outcome he could have imagined when he used to think about what would happen if the truth came out – there is nothing more disconcerting than Victor Von Doom trying to be conventionally kind.

Frankly he cannot imagine what Pietro’s daughter is going to think of them all, but Kristoff has been reassured by her father that Luna Maximoff is used to the weird and wonderful things in this world.

“Don’t fret about Luna,” Quicksilver had told him a few days ago when they had both been witness to one of his father’s moods. “She is used to living with… _colourful_ characters – the Inhuman Royal Family are stranger than anyone living here, believe me.”

Kristoff’s cousin (though in truth his half-niece) Valeria Richards had also seen fit to reassure him. “Luna’s pretty cool,” she had told him over one of the secure channels they use to communicate with one another. “Her powers make her good at reading situations – she can see people’s emotions, y’know? She was kinda quiet when she stayed with us at the Baxter Building a couple of years ago, but I think that’s ‘cos there were so many other kids there.”

Obviously Luna will not have the same problem in the Castle – the only time she will encounter lots of children are in her own school classes. There is Kristofer, of course, but he is not worried on that front – Luna’s own uncle and King of the Inhumans Black Bolt is also mute. In fact, Kristoff has the sneaking suspicion that his brother will quite like Luna – her ability to sense the emotions of others is definitely something that will aid in communication. He has no problem using sign language, but he knows that sometimes his brother is unable to properly communicate what he feels and then Kristofer gets frustrated with himself and doesn’t sign at all. It hurts him to see his baby brother close himself off in such a way. He worries that Kristofer is taking after their father in terms of being emotionally shut away from the rest of the world, and so he hopes that with Luna in Latveria he may be able to fix that habit before it ever turns into a problem.

* * *

Luna Maximoff is fourteen years old. She has long blonde hair with braids showing through the thick tresses and wide blue eyes. Her skin is lighter than her father’s but still not light enough to be considered Caucasian. The girl has no obvious physical mutations like her father or the Inhumans – Kristoff supposes that her powers are more subtle. She’s standing in the middle of the throne room of the Castle with her father and she’s looking around curiously.

Her father is speaking to Victor – seated on his throne, of course – in a tirade of fluent Latverian. He speaks with one hand on his daughter’s shoulder and the other gesturing so quickly it’s a blur to normal eyes. Pietro Maximoff, Kristoff has learned, knows many languages and it took him only a day to learn Latverian – something his father was very impressed by though he hadn’t shown it or, at least, Pietro hadn’t picked up on it. It is refreshing for both of them, he thinks, to interact with someone from their part of the world. Americans are full of condescension and superiority – Pietro Maximoff is certainly a refreshing break from all that. Kristoff wonders why the Avengers had never seen fit to send the man as an intermediary before – it certainly would have smoothed over a good few international incidents incited by the Avenger’s interactions with his father.

“The majority of students live in the school dormitories – Luna can choose to stay there or in the main Castle with my own children, whatever she is most comfortable with.” Victor is saying to Quicksilver – in English this time, for Luna to understand. “My son Kristoff can show her both options now if she would like – we have other matters to discuss between the two of us, hmm?” Kristoff is standing beside his father’s throne and Zora stands beside him – both of them waiting for instructions.

“Is that okay with you, Luna?” Pietro asks his daughter.

Luna eyes him warily and he gives her a disarming smile; he cannot imagine how strange this situation must be for her – being away from your home and dumped essentially in a strange place. _Does Luna even have a home,_ a part of him wonders, _does she live with her mother or her father?_ He can’t recall.

“Perhaps you’d be more comfortable if Zora came with us?” he suggests, gesturing to the older girl who stands beside him. 

Luna looks more at ease with that idea, and Zora smiles at her reassuringly. “If that is okay with you, Master?” Zora asks, turning to Victor.

“Of course, Victorious,” Victor waves her question off. “My son’s word is as good as my own.”

Kristoff and Zora exchange a glance that consists of raised eyebrows – this is exactly the kind of weirdly _nice_ behaviour his father has been exhibiting lately that has him concerned. He keeps _saying_ things like that. It feels like Kristoff’s accidently turned up to a cognitive behaviour therapy session in which he is bombarded with positive affirmations but instead of coming from a therapist, they are coming from his usually emotionally distant father. Truly it is quite disturbing.

“Come, Luna,” he tells the younger girl, leaving his father’s side and moving towards her. “We’ll go see the school’s accommodations first.”

Kristoff leads the way, leaving Zora and Luna to follow him. He hopes that Luna may be more comfortable talking to another girl, so he leaves the two of them to speak whilst he stays slightly ahead of them both.

The school is built onto the side of the Castle and it is very easy to cross between the two buildings. The students who can normally be found loitering about are all sequestered away in their classrooms as it’s a weekday – his own brother is taking lessons with Boris somewhere in the main Castle.

They move through winding corridors with stone walls, floors and ceilings – Kristoff has tried to tell his father that this building looks eerily similar to a dungeon, but Victor had never seemed particularly bothered about that; in fact that was probably the desired outlook.

The dormitories are all on the upper levels of the school, and they climb a narrow staircase until they reach the long stretching corridors that house rooms for the students. The dungeon aesthetic is still there, but he knows the rooms inside are comfortable and cosy.

“How many students stay here?” Luna asks from behind him.

He pauses. “Not many,” he says after some quick mental calculations. “The majority of students don’t board here because they come from Doomstadt so they can just go home at the end of the day. The students who live here are mostly ones whose homes are in other towns or those who have, well… _supernatural_ origins.”

Luna sounds curious when she says, “what do you mean?”

He shrugs. “Y’know… vampires, demons, etcetera,” he waves a hand vaguely in the air, “those kinda people.”

“You have _demons_ here?”

Surprisingly that comes from Zora instead of Luna. She looks embarrassed to have said it out loud.

“I mean I don’t know _all_ the students who attend here but I know there’s a couple of demons… half-demons? I know Daimon Hellstrom’s daughter is around here somewhere and she’s half-demon – I assume there’s others but I’m not sure. The ones here are only kids though, they’re not particularly _evil_ or anything.” He adds that last part on as some sort of reassurance for Zora who looks increasingly concerned. Luna on the other hand doesn’t seem particularly bothered. She seems interested, even.

“And how many people stay in the other part of the Castle?” Luna inquires politely.

“Well in the part you’d be staying in there’d just be myself, Zora and my younger brother.”

Luna considers this. “I think that would be the better option,” she says to him confidently. “My powers can be… _overwhelming_ , if I’m around lots of people.”

He hadn’t considered that – he imagines it must be quite exhausting to be able to sense the emotions of everyone around you. It’s the sort of power that can’t be turned off – not like his.

“Sure,” he says. “We’ll pass by my father’s study on the way to that side of the Castle – if you’d like to say goodbye to your father, I mean.” He assumes that Victor has taken Luna’s father to his study anyhow – that’s where he takes people to discuss most things. It’s been rebuilt, of course, after Kristoff accidentally destroyed it the week before when he had a slight breakdown and burnt it down with his newfound and not-very-well-mastered mutant powers.

On the way back to the main Castle, he asks Luna about her own powers. “Where did they come from – if you don’t mind me asking, of course. I’ve read before in my father’s research into the X-Gene that a mutant and Inhuman child would produce a normal human without any powers.” Diving into his father’s research had been one of the first things he’d done when he found out that he was a mutant – he probably should have suspected something sooner based purely on how much research into mutants his father had on hand.

Thankfully Luna does not seem offended by his inquiry. “That’s true – the bit about producing a normal human, I mean. Most Inhumans are technically _born_ without their powers and they undergo terrigenesis later in life to unlock their latent abilities.” Luna bites her lip and she comes across as almost embarrassed, “Dad wanted me to undergo terrigenesis when I was born but the council forbid it – they said it was too dangerous for me and eventually he agreed with them. A couple of years ago though… after M-Day… he lost his own powers and stole the terrigen crystals from the Inhumans and exposed himself to them to regain his abilities. He… he wasn’t well at the time – not in his right mind – and he exposed me to them too and I gained my powers then.” Luna’s cheeks are flushed slightly as if she is embarrassed on her father’s behalf, but her jaw is also clenched, and he gets the feeling that if he were to say something rude about Quicksilver she would probably punch him in the face. He is glad to see that they both have the same temperament when it comes to their parents.

“M-Day, huh?” he says instead, “I lost my powers on M-Day too – not that I realised I even _had_ any powers, of course, because my father lied to me about them. And then the Scarlet Witch – uh… your aunt, I guess – restored them on behalf of my father and he _still_ decided to keep quiet about them for another couple of years!” He says this all with a sort of mock incredulity – not entirely faked, of course, because he’s still sort of holding his father’s lies against the man. He just puts a more comedic spin on it for Luna; he wants to reassure the girl that she’s not the only one with a slightly dysfunctional family.

It works and she looks up at him with a slightly relieved smile.

“So you’re a mutant?” Luna asks, swiftly moving on. “What can you do?”

He grimaces. “It’s probably not the best power to demonstrate indoors – I already accidently burnt my father’s study down the other week.”

“So… fire?”

“Sort of – I can heat things up. I can create flames from my body too but that’s only happened once so far. It mostly involves a lot of accidental burning and blowing up of things.”

Luna laughs. “Sounds like my cousin Tommy – he’s fast like my dad but he can blow things up too. Once he accidentally blew up his school.”

He grins. “And here I thought no one could relate to my unique life experiences.”

* * *

Later – when Luna has bid her father goodbye whilst he goes off to prepare for his mission to Krakoa and she has been settled into her room for the night – Kristoff’s little brother crawls into his bed.

He rolls onto his side to face the boy. “Good evening, _pralořo_.”

_“Who was with dad today?”_ Kristofer signs out. His brow is furrowed, and he is sitting cross-legged on the bed instead of laying down next to Kristoff like he normally does.

“Oh, you saw him?” He didn’t realise Kristofer ran into Luna’s father – Boris must have taken Kristofer into the study at some point to speak to Victor. “Did he say anything to you?”

His brother shakes his head. “ _Didn’t see me,”_ he signs.

He frowns, pushing himself up into a sitting position. “Didn’t see you? How didn’t he–” Kristoff cuts off “–Were you _spying_ on dad?”

Kristofer – much like their father – feels little shame, and the boy grins proudly. _“Yes.”_

“Why were you sneaking around?” he asks, frowning, “you’re lucky you didn’t get caught – dad doesn’t like people sneaking around, even us.”

_“Mute – always silent.”_ Kristofer signs with a sly smile. _“Not going to get caught – not loud like you.”_

He makes a face. “I’m not _loud_.”

Kristofer makes a gesture like an explosion. _“Blew up dad’s room.”_

“That was an accident!” he protests. Then he shakes his head. “Never mind that – why were you spying on him?”

_“Acting weird lately.”_ Kristofer scrunches up his face slightly as he signs this. _“Keeps hugging me.”_

It says a lot about their family that both of Victor Von Doom’s children find it strange that the man has been acting nice recently.

“Well I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed that,” he mutters. He reaches out and ruffles his brother’s hair. “You don’t need to worry about that, though – it’s my fault.”

Kristofer looks at him suspiciously. _“Because you blew up his room?”_ His brother seems quite confused and he wonders if their father even bothered to tell him about Nathaniel. _Perhaps he thought it didn’t matter or perhaps he didn’t want anyone else to know – secrets can only be powerful if they’re secrets, after all; if Victor is planning to wait and use my connection to Nathaniel at a later time then it’s probably prudent that we are the only ones who know about it._

“Sort of,” he replies to his brother’s question. “It’s complicated.”

Kristofer nods wisely – like he is an old man and not a small child. _“I understand. It is about your secret.”_ The boy pauses for a moment, studying him with his intelligent eyes that are so similar to their father’s. _“Not a secret anymore? Dad knows?”_

Kristoff nods silently.

_“Tell me?”_

He bites his lip. He doesn’t know whether Victor would want Kristofer to know the truth…

_Who cares?_ A part of him whispers. _It’s not his secret to tell._

Haltingly, he says, “my dad… uh, my biological dad… he’s, uh, someone who…” he struggles with what to say – he’s not even sure if Kristofer knows who Reed Richards is. “He’s someone who is… who’s an enemy of our dad.” He sighs, “and I’ve known this for a while – for years, really – and I never told him. I was… scared – scared that’d he’d get rid of me and that he wouldn’t want me anymore if he knew the truth. I thought… I thought he would _hate_ me.”

Even speaking about it has him shivering with the memory of when he realised that Victor _knew_. He’d never been so terrified in his life.

_“But he doesn’t hate you.”_

“No,” he murmurs. “No. He doesn’t.” _At least I don’t think he does, and I do not understand why. It doesn’t make sense._

_“And we are still brothers?”_

He blinks. “Of course.”

_“Then there is nothing to be scared of,”_ Kristofer signs. His brother crawls across the bed and throws himself clumsily at him. Kristoff fumbles slightly before getting a solid grip on his wiggling brother and squeezes him tightly to his chest. _I think even if our father hated me, I would always have Kristofer. Nothing can sway him – not even our father. They are evenly matched in stubbornness._

When his brother pulls back, Kristoff positions them so that they are lying in bed facing each other. _“Didn’t tell me who the man was.”_ Kristofer signs eventually.

“Hmm?” he questions. “Oh – you mean Quicksilver. He’s working with dad on something. You’ll probably see him around the Castle more often – his daughter is the one staying with us. You remember I told you about Luna?”

Kristofer nods.

“Yeah well she’ll be staying with us and going to school here whilst her dad is busy helping our dad on a mission.”

_“He confused my eyes,”_ Kristofer signs, waving a hand in front of his face, _“he blurs.”_

Kristoff laughs. “Yeah he can look like a blur sometimes. He’s a mutant – like me – but his power is superspeed.”

_“Is he old? His hair is like granddad’s.”_

That really cracks him up and he laughs for a good minute or so. Kristofer scowls at him and pokes him several times. _“Answer me!”_

He waves his brother’s weak attacks off. “Stop that. And I’m sorry but that was just very funny – I’ll tell Boris tomorrow and he’ll laugh too; you’ll see. Anyways his hair is like that because of his mutation – some mutants look physically different. He’s not old – he’s younger than dad and _definitely_ much younger than Boris.”

His brother takes that all in, nodding slowly. _“What mission are they working on?”_

He chews his lip. “There’s this island – this country, I guess – called Krakoa and the only people allowed to live there are mutants. And that’s _fine_ … but there’s something _weird_ about it. There’s loads of mutants all across the world and there’s a group of them in America that are superheroes called the X-Men – they’ve tried to do this kinda thing before; create a mutant nation, I mean. But it’s always failed – not through any fault of their own, admittedly.” He takes a breath. “Anyways the X-Men have never all agreed about creating a mutant nation and their leader Charles Xavier has always been the most vocal opponent _against_ creating one – he’s always been a supporter of getting mutants and humans to live side by side together instead of mutants isolating themselves. But suddenly – and I mean like literally overnight – he’s banded together all the X-Men and all of their enemies and decided that actually his goal of mutants and humans living together is wrong. So he and Magneto – Magneto’s like one of the other mutant leaders I guess you’d say… oh also he’s Quicksilver’s dad but that’s a different story – anyways the two of them have built this Krakoa which is like… well I’m not sure but it’s like an island that’s _alive_ and they have these portals in basically every country in the world now so that mutants can go and live there.” He lets out a frustrated noise, “I’m probably not explaining it well, but the point is that it’s… _concerning_ – especially if you’re like dad and you rule a country that hasn’t allied with Krakoa. So he’s sending Quicksilver to go and… _integrate_ himself with the mutants living there to try and find out if there’s anything _weird_ going on.”

Kristofer is watching him with wide curious eyes. He can tell that his brother is paying attention. He’s twisting his hands together the way he does when he is concentrating intently or when he’s anxious. He can’t quite tell which of the two it is. Finally, he signs, _“do all mutants have to live there?”_

“What?”

His brother pulls a face, looking a bit frustrated. _“Do you have to live there?”_

_Oh._

He strokes a hand through Kristofer’s hair. “I’m not going anywhere, _pralořo_ – don’t worry about that.”

* * *

Luna Maximoff settles into her new life very easily, as far as Kristoff can tell. He gets the impression she’s used to upping and moving half-way across the world on short notice.

During the week, she attends lessons at the Latverian School of Science. As Luna tells it she’s been placed in a class of students that Kristoff would loosely term as ‘exchange students’ – students not from Latveria and who do not speak the language. There are a few that are just humans from surrounding countries – children who excel in the sciences who have been awarded a scholarship – but the others are like Luna; children with powers that are not from Latveria – not everyone can be sent to the Xavier Institute, after all (well _no one_ can, now).

She attends normal lessons – the sort you’d find at any high school across the globe – but she also has other lessons; ones specific to her powers. “My teacher is a telepath,” she tells him on one occasion when they’re taking lunch together. Kristoff doesn’t go to school, necessarily – he has no need to – but he does attend a few lessons sporadically through the week to help him control his powers. “Our powers aren’t exactly the same – obviously – but they’re pretty similar.” She seems quite happy about this – he wonders if she’s ever really had any contact with superpowered people outside her own family.

“I didn’t know there were any telepaths at the school,” he says mildly – he supposes there must be a few across the country but he figured they weren’t the sort of mutants his father would want close to the Castle; he’s quite paranoid, after all.

Luna shrugs. “She told me she was new – that I’m her only student. I guess your dad went and found her for _me_ – no one else at the school has powers similar enough to mine to be of any use.” He thinks she’s probably hit the nail on the head there, it seems like a very Doom thing to do.

Kristoff’s own lessons are taken with his father. For a while he did have another teacher – Daimon Hellstrom – who had owed Victor a favour for some dark deed Kristoff decided he was better of not knowing about and so hadn’t bothered enquiring into. Hellstrom was well versed in all things fire (for obvious reasons) and was also a practitioner of the dark arts which made him a particularly useful teacher for Kristoff specifically. Also there had been the bonus of his own daughter attending the school, so he supposed for Hellstrom it had been like killing two birds with one stone. However his father had called those lessons off only a day after he found out about Nathaniel. Kristoff had thought at first that it had been because of how he had lost control of his powers inside Victor’s study – that maybe his father thought he hadn’t been making enough progress in his lessons and had decided to call them off. _Another way I have fallen short of his expectations, I’m sure._

Then Victor had announced sometime later that his lessons would resume but under _his_ tutelage. That had been the beginning of his strange behaviour – Victor Von Doom doesn’t have the time to waste teaching him how to control his powers; it’d been why as a child Kristoff had been taught everything by tutors. But his father had been insistent.

“Aren’t you busy, father?” he’d asked him.

“Of course,” Victor had answered easily, without looking at him. “But what sort of father would I be if I could not even make time for my own son?”

Then he had walked away as if that was enough – as if he hadn’t just left his son standing there open mouthed.

Since then Kristoff’s life has been one odd interaction with his father after another. Today he had managed to light his whole body on fire and turn it off again without losing control. Then at the end of their lesson his father had taken one of his armoured gloves off and patted his shoulder whilst expressing to Kristoff how _proud_ he was of him. Again, he had been left gaping whilst his father casually walked away. He is starting to suspect that Victor gets some strange joy out of disturbing him so.

Turning his attention back to Luna, he tells her, “at least your lessons are not with my father like mine are.”

“No offence but I don’t think the emotional spectrum is something your dad’s an expert on.”

“Oh no offence taken, you’re definitely right on that front.”

He watches Luna take a bite of her lunch before she swallows it and says, “I wish my dad would teach _me_ stuff.” She rolls her shoulders back, sighing, “I mean not even like with my powers – because obviously ours are nothing alike – but _other_ stuff, y’know?”

He studies her carefully before answering. He hasn’t quite worked out the nuances of Luna’s relationship with her father yet. Kristoff’s only seen them interact a few times because Quicksilver only drops by to check in with Victor once a week. As far as he can tell, Luna has spent most of her life with her mother and has only recently reconnected with her father in the last couple of years. He thinks it’s probably a good thing that Luna can see emotions otherwise he suspects that most of her interactions with her father would be stilted and lost in miscommunication; the way his and Victor’s are. “Have you ever asked him to teach you things?” he asks her. “Perhaps he thinks you are not interested in the things he knows.”

Luna shrugs, “he’s busy now.”

A slither of guilt runs through him because obviously it’s his and his father’s fault that Quicksilver is busy at the moment.

“Don’t feel guilty,” Luna tells him, rolling her eyes. “What he’s doing is important, I know – he’s gotta stop grandpa from causing a _scene_ again.”

He raises an eyebrow, “you call Magneto _grandpa_?”

“I mean he _is_ my grandpa,” Luna points out.

“But he’s _Magneto_.”

Luna laughs, “and your dad is Doctor Doom – what’s the difference, really?”

He shrugs. “I just sorta got the impression that your dad and Magneto don’t really get along.”

“Oh they don’t,” Luna agrees, nodding. “They hate each other, really.”

“And that doesn’t make things awkward? Y’know… when the whole family is together?”

Luna considers this. “Well, it’s hardly like we’re having family dinners every weekend – I mean we do but he’s not invited. I dunno. It’s complicated I guess.”

He hums in agreement. “Family always is.”

* * *

One afternoon he is sitting up in the battlements of the Castle re-reading his copy of _Frankenstein_ by Mary Shelley. The copy in his hands is a well-worn copy that he’s read many times over – it’s his reading copy. His prized copy of the novel is a first edition of the book that had originally belonged to Lord Byron who had received it from Mary Shelley herself complete with an inscription to the man from the author on one of the title pages. It went up for auction a couple of years ago in London and was bought by Kristoff’s father who gave it to him for his sixteenth birthday. Obviously he doesn’t take _that_ copy out on top of the Castle to read.

Today is a mildly warm day in Latveria which is why he’s able to sit outside without any coat, and even the stone of the Castle isn’t as freezing cold as it usually is, so he feels comfortable leaning against it. He’s sitting out there alone because everyone else is busy – Kristofer and Luna are in lessons and Zora is doing whatever business Victor has tasked her to. He doesn’t mind, he is partial to solitude now and again.

Although _Frankenstein_ is one of his favourites, there is a reason he has felt the need to re-read it today – namely that it offers insight into his father’s peculiarities. No matter how many times he reads the novel he is always amazed at how similar the titular character is to his father, even down to the first name. His father has been acting strange for many days now and the longer it goes on the more he grows concerned. There have been times in the past when his father has acted out of sorts for various reasons – the most recent occasion had been a year or two ago when Victor had sustained brain damage in an encounter with the Hulk. That time it had been his father’s intelligence that had been affected and eventually he had appointed Kristoff as regent of Latveria (supervised by Boris, of course) whilst he sought out the aid of the Fantastic Four to fix him. It had been a relatively easy fix – Kristoff’s own brain held all of Victor Von Doom’s memories and knowledge and it had been simple enough for Reed Richards to rewrite Victor’s brain with the parts needed from him.

But of course his father’s behaviour is different this time around – it’s not his intelligence that has been affected but his… _emotions_? Kristoff isn’t sure how to describe it. Anyone else would think he was completely insane to be worried about his father acting – dare he say it – _nice_ but those people do not know his father. Victor Von Doom is not nice – he can be respectful and honourable and occasionally even generous, but he is _not_ nice.

“May I join you, Kristoff?”

He startles and turns to see Quicksilver standing at the stairs where the battlement leads back down into the Castle. The man had arrived silently – curtesy of his speed, of course – but Kristoff recovers quickly from his surprise.

“Of course,” he says, folding the corner of the page he was reading and closing the book. His father scolds him when he sees Kristoff folding pages of books, but he doesn’t care – he would never do it to an old or valuable book but with his own copies he’s not particularly bothered. “Are you looking for my father?”

Quicksilver moves suddenly and then he is sitting on the low bench along the parapet wall, next to where Kristoff is seated. “No – Boris already told me your father is out of the country. I was actually hoping to speak to _you_.”

He blinks in surprise. “ _Me_?” He can’t imagine what Quicksilver would want to speak to him about, though he supposes the mutant probably wishes to check how his daughter is settling in. 

Quicksilver doesn’t bother to reply. Instead he asks, “how are you faring with your new-found powers?”

Kristoff shrugs. “As well as I can be, I guess.” He _thinks_ he’s making progress – his father _seems_ pleased after all of his lessons anyhow, but it’s not like Kristoff is ever going to get an accurate read out of him. Also it’s sort of hard to tell how well he’s progressing until he has another emotional meltdown – then he’ll be able to _really_ see how well he can control his powers. He looks suspiciously at Quicksilver, “why do you ask? Did father say something?”

“He may have mentioned that he had to rebuild his study after you had an… _incident_.” Quicksilver admits.

He freezes. “Did… did he mention _exactly_ what happened?”

“No,” Quicksilver says carefully. “Is it something you wish to talk about?”

He considers that for a few moments. Perhaps Quicksilver would understand his situation better than most – he is the son of a supervillain too, after all. He understands that their two situations are not exactly the same; as Luna tells it her father and Magneto do not get along at all whereas Kristoff loves his father but still…

Making his mind up, he says, “can I ask you something?”

Quicksilver nods.

“You didn’t always know Magneto was your father, right? So… you were adopted or…” he trails off, leaving an opening for the man to reply.

“Hmm,” the man makes a quick gesture as if to say _it’s complicated_. “My mother – my birth mother, that is – was married to the man you call Magneto. There was an… an incident and after it she became afraid of who he was. It was not his being a mutant that frightened her, but the sort of man he was – a man who thrived on vengeance and one who was not capable of living in peace. So she ran from him and at the time – though she did not know it – she was pregnant with Wanda and I.” Quicksilver’s eyes are distant when he recounts this, as if he does not know the people he speaks about; Kristoff supposes he doesn’t, not really. “Eventually she ended up in Transia – on Wundagore Mountain – where she went into labour. The High Evolutionary – I am assuming you are familiar with the man, considering his proximity to your country – allowed one of his ‘new men’ to assist my mother and deliver her children safely.” He sighs, “barely had my mother recovered from childbirth when she left us and ventured out into the freezing night, in the hopes that Magneto would not be able to find Wanda and I. So the High Evolutionary went down the mountain and found a Romani couple – a couple who had recently lost their own twin children – and gave Wanda and I to them. We were only babies, of course, so we never had any inkling that Django and Marya Maximoff were not our biological parents. So yes, Wanda and I were adopted, but we only found out as teenagers and by then we did not care who our real parents were because as far as we were concerned – as far as I’m _still_ concerned – Django and Marya are our real parents.”

Quicksilver’s story causes half a million questions to bubble up inside him. He settles on one, and asks, “so you love your father – the man who raised you – more than you love Magneto?”

The silver-haired man doesn’t hesitate. “Yes, of course.”

Kristoff bites his lip. “Do… do you ever wish people didn’t _know_ that Magneto was your biological father? That _you_ didn’t know?”

“Of course,” Quicksilver answers easily, “not only do I wish people didn’t know, I wish he wasn’t my father full stop. Most of my adult life has been defined by being his son, and I hate it because I am _not_ his son – not in any way that truly matters. My life will always be tied to the fact that Magneto is of my blood – it is he who I look like, and where my powers come from and he who made me a villain before I was a hero. Those are facets of my life I will _never_ be able to escape – I cannot run from the simple truth that he brought me into this world, and I _hate_ him for it.”

_Hmm. Originally I had assumed Quicksilver and I shared the similarity of having a villainous father but now I see the similarities run deeper even than that. It is not just that we share the hardships of having a less than heroic father, but that we are tangled in the web created by our biological fathers – both of whom we desire to escape our connection with._

“I understand,” he tells him honestly. “Victor is my father… he’s the man who raised me. And I’m lucky – luckier than you, at least – because in the outside world I will _always_ be associated with him, even though it is known I am not his biological child. Victor has many faults, I know, but he has never considered me anything less than his son – he has never cared that I am not his blood son and I think there are many people that would be surprised by that.”

Quicksilver watches him carefully. “I am sensing that there is going to be a _but_ in there somewhere.”

He lets out a small sound that is more of an uptick in his breathing than what was supposed to be a laugh. “ _But_ … but that was before he knew who my real father was. And now… now I’m scared that he will never look at me in the same way again – that the rest of the world will still see me as Doctor Doom’s son, but that Victor will look at me and see someone else entirely; someone who is _not_ his son.”

Kristoff thinks that his fears might have been lesser had it been a year ago – before Kristofer and before Zora. Because then he could have at least said to himself: “ _well look at it this way, Kristoff, your father has no other options, so he’ll have to keep you by his side – he’s invested too much time and effort in you to throw you away now!”_ But evidently the situation has changed. His father has Kristofer – a child clone of himself whom he considers his son; so, essentially, a blood son. And his father has Zora – a young woman a few years older than Kristoff who has powers she can control and a personality more similar to Victor’s own. Frankly, either of them would make better heirs than Kristoff.

Quicksilver is watching him with concern. He contorts his face carefully before saying, “I assumed your biological father was just an ordinary Latverian and that he was dead or that you did not know him. I suppose it is safe to say that that is not true then?”

A part of him is surprised but he supposes there’s no real reason for anyone outside of his family (including the Fantastic Four) to know the circumstances of his adoption or even his life before his mother died. The non-superhero population certainly don’t know; he’s read his own Wikipedia page before and the information on there is sparse and vague (just the way his father likes) – and there is no details at all about his life before Victor. And of course there are only a select group of people who know that his biological father is Nathaniel Richards.

“No,” he tells Quicksilver, sighing, “it’s not true.” He leans back against the wall of the parapet, titling his head up towards the sky. He closes his eyes and sighs again. “When I was younger, my father – Victor – was presumed dead along with Reed Richards after a battle in Latveria. Boris took me away to one of my father’s other bases outside of the country because he feared that Latveria would be in danger from outsiders if they discovered Doom was not alive anymore to protect us. The Doombots were left to guard and run the country – as is their purpose – and Boris and I stayed in Tibet. Sometime later Susan Richards came looking for us… or at least her father-in-law Nathaniel Richards had come looking for us and Susan had accompanied him. Susan thought that Nathaniel had been looking for Reed because he told her he was going to find his son which is why she went with him. But instead he led her to _me_. Susan was angry at him because she believed he’d tricked her, but he just told her he’d never specified _which_ son he was looking for.”

Quicksilver furrows his brow and looks at him in slight disbelief. “You…” he trails off. “You are saying that this Nathaniel – the father of Reed Richards – is _your_ biological father? How… how would that even be possible?”

Kristoff’s mouth twists in distaste. “Nathaniel is a time-traveller.”

“But even so…” the silver-haired mutant trails off again, deep in thought. “All you’ve said seems like hearsay – has Nathaniel ever actually told you that he is your father himself?”

His hands grip the underside of the bench tightly, the wood digging into his skin. It is not Quicksilver’s questions that anger him, but the memories of his interactions with Nathaniel Richards.

“Yes,” he says shortly, “he has confirmed it to me. He told me how whilst travelling through time he ran into trouble and managed to return to earth, although he was badly injured. He landed in Latveria and stumbled upon my mother who nursed him back to health. They grew closer during this time and that is when I was conceived. He disappeared back into the timestream shortly after I was born… at least that’s what I assume, because he knew of my existence and knew I was a boy, so he must have been there for my birth.” He scowls, twisting his hands together. “And of course I ran my own tests – DNA tests – to check. He was telling the truth. He is my biological father.”

Quicksilver looks unsure of how to reply. Finally he says, “and Doom… he never knew of this?”

He shakes his head. “Not until recently.” Kristoff bites his lip, “I was… careless, when I was with Valeria and Franklin. They already knew and we were discussing it… I should have remembered that my father has surveillance _everywhere_.”

“How did he react?”

The question causes him to pause and really _think_. His memories of the day are hazy – his powers were completely out of control and then his father was forced to use magic to calm him down which can have adverse effects on one’s memories. But one thing that stands out to him was that Victor didn’t seem to have the intention of telling him he knew about Nathaniel – he had only mentioned it because Kristoff had seen his father talking with Kang which had reminded Victor of their relation.

And then of course Kristoff had freaked out and burst into flame.

He had been so exhausted after that, but he remembers waking up in bed with his father by his bedside. Kristoff had cried because he had been so terrified that Victor would never want to see him again and would cast him out of their family. And his father had been… _scared_? He hadn’t understood why Kristoff was so terrified and thought that he had been physically hurt in some way.

“He…” Kristoff struggles to find the words. “He didn’t understand what I was so scared about… it had never occurred to him that I might be terrified of his reaction. He didn’t seem to think that Nathaniel being my biological father was a big deal… he said that I was _his_ son and not Nathaniel’s.”

“You sound as if you don’t agree with his reaction,” Quicksilver notes, watching him with observant eyes.

Kristoff purses his lips. “I think he’s lying. I think he’s only _pretending_ that it means nothing to him but really he’s angry at me for hiding it all these years. I think he is going to resent me for the rest of my life because if I had just told him sooner than he could have been rid of me and found a new heir, but now he can’t because he’s spent so much time and energy on making me into his heir that it would be a waste to get rid of me.” All of this comes out of his mouth in rapid succession like a machine gun and he’s forced to take a deep breath afterwards.

Quicksilver is looking at him in a sort of pity. Again, the man seems unsure of how to reply but eventually he decides and says, “I think that you are mistaken, Kristoff. You are operating under the assumption that the only reason Doom has kept you around all these years is because he needed an heir. You can’t understand his reaction because you see yourself as his heir before you see yourself as his _son_. To me – as a father – I can tell you that Doom’s reaction was perfectly understandable. No matter what you lied to him about, no matter who your biological father is, he could never hate you. How could he? Imagine, for a second, that you are a father and you see your child standing in front of you and they are _terrified_ of you. Well, I have been that terrified child, and I have been the father seeing their child terrified of _them_ , and I can tell you that there is no worse feeling in this world than knowing you have lost the trust of your child. That is what your father experienced, and clearly he has taken it to heart.”

“What do you mean?” Kristoff asks, frowning.

“Has your father been acting differently recently? Has his behaviour changed?” Quicksilver asks, sounding like he already knows the answer.

Flashes of all his father’s odd nice behaviour play across his mind. “Well, yes… but–”

“But what? Your father is trying to make up for those years you spent terrified he would find out the truth by attempting to show you that he loves you… evidently he has not been very successful.”

* * *

Quicksilver’s words resonate in his mind all afternoon. His mind is so preoccupied that he cannot focus on reading and so he is forced to abandon _Frankenstein_ and turn his attention elsewhere.

Elsewhere, in this case, is his powers. He spends a good couple of hours trying to fine-tune his control over them. Focusing heat into his hands and making sure it stays only in his hands where he can control it. Turning it on and off as quickly as he can. Generally just making sure he isn’t about to explode into a mess of flames at the slightest provocation.

In the very early evening he goes and finds Luna. The teenager is sitting in her bedroom at the elegant desk tucked into the corner of her room and she’s hunched over some sort of work.

She seems relieved to see him. “Hi, Kristoff!” She moves her chair around so that she’s facing him. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” he says. “Did you see your dad? He was here earlier.”

Luna brightens. “Yes! We had lunch together and he sat in on my lessons.”

“That sounds cool,” he says, because he can see that Luna is happy to have spent time with her father like she’d mentioned wanting before. “Uh… I was hoping I could ask you something, actually.”

“Oh?” Luna looks intrigued. “Sure, go ahead.”

“You can see everyone’s emotions, right?” he checks. “Like… even my dad’s?”

She raises her eyebrows at him but answers nonetheless. “Yes, even his. It’s harder… like I’m seeing through dirty glass or something, but they’re still there.”

He bites his lip. “Can you… can you tell if he loves me?”

Luna’s eyes widen in shock and she almost lets out a slight gasp but manages to smother it in time. “What are you _talking_ about? Of course he loves you! He’s your _dad_!”

Kristoff sighs because he’s only just hashed this out with Luna’s father and he really isn’t in the mood to explain the whole situation again. Instead he says simply, “I’m adopted… I just want to make sure.”

Luna, of course, senses his emotions and sees fit not to push him further. She looks quite sad on his behalf. “I… yes,” she struggles to find the words. “Yes. He loves you very much, Kristoff. More than anything, even. He… the love is dark and vicious – he would do anything for you.”

The confirmation of his father’s affection nearly sends him to his knees in relief. _He doesn’t hate me. He’s never hated me. I’m his son. He loves me._

Luna appears at his side suddenly, an arm on his wrist. “Are you okay?” she asks, quietly. He realises that he had sort of spaced out and wonders if his intense emotions had affected Luna because he notices her usual blue eyes are golden and glowing.

“I’m fine,” he tells her. “I’m just… relieved – it has been weighing on my mind for a long time.”

She smiles a very small smile. “I understand. I know what it’s like to have a father who is very unemotional… I do not know what I would be like if I could not physically _see_ that my dad loved me.”

_Yes,_ he thinks, _you are indeed very lucky on that front. I would give anything to be able to see my father’s emotions all the time. Frankly I would settle at being able to see his face all the time._

“What does _your_ dad’s love look like?” he asks her, moving to sit down on the edge of her bed. Kristoff is very curious about what Luna’s powers look like to her, and he is also curious about her relationship with her father – Quicksilver said a few things to him in their earlier conversation that have piqued his interest. But more than any of those things he knows what it is like to be alone, and to not have anyone to talk to, and he can tell that is how Luna Maximoff feels.

The teenager walks back to her desk chair and sits back down thoughtfully. She looks like she is thinking very hard, with her brow furrowed and her eyes switching from blue to gold like someone is playing with a light switch. “A lot like your dad’s,” she says finally. “Dad is a hero, but I know… I can _feel_ that he would do anything for me. M-Day happened because he was trying to protect my aunt Wanda from the other heroes who wanted to hurt her. He loves very fiercely and with his whole heart. And he loves very quickly – maybe his powers have something to do with that – but he married my mum after only knowing her for a couple of weeks.” Luna twists her hands together. “Can I ask _you_ something, Kristoff?”

He nods.

“Has your dad ever done anything that you thought was unforgivable?”

He cracks a stiff smile and tells her, “If I want to live here and stay sane, Luna, then I cannot find any of his actions unforgivable.”

“But surely there must have been one thing that you thought was worse than the rest?” she presses.

Kristoff stays silent and that seems to give him away. Luna seizes on his silence, “please tell me,” she begs.

“He killed someone I loved,” he tells her shortly.

That doesn’t seem to be what Luna was expecting, and a myriad of emotions cross her face. She settles on curiosity. “What happened?” she asks quietly.

He bites his lip. “When I was younger,” he starts, slowly, “I stayed with the Fantastic Four for a while. Whilst I was there I became close friends with another child similar to my own age – Cassandra Lang, daughter of the Ant-Man Scott Lang. We stayed in touch even after I returned to live with my father in Latveria, and I loved her very much.”

Even _thinking_ about Cassie feels like someone is squeezing his heart until it bleeds. Talking about her? It feels like he’s cracking open his own ribs.

Luna gasps, sounding slightly horrified when she says, “and your father _killed_ her?”

He grimaces. Cassie’s broken body flashes in front of his eyes. He shakes his head, banishing the haunting image from his mind. Haltingly, he says, “it was not in cold blood… it was during a battle between himself and a group of heroes. He was in possession of the Life Force at the time – a powerful force which unhinges its user… it is the same power that possessed your aunt Wanda which caused her to attack her own teammates.”

“But… but you _must_ have forgiven him,” Luna points out, “because you have a good relationship now.” She looks at him intently, barely able to hold herself back from asking all the questions she clearly has on her mind.

“Yes, well,” he mutters, dragging his fingers through his hair, “the road to forgiveness was long and messy, believe me.”

_“I hate you!” he had screamed at his father. “You’re evil! Everything everyone has ever said about you is true! You’re… you’re a monster!”_

_Victor had not even flinched. “Stop with your tantrum, child – it is unbecoming of you. I fail to see what has you so incensed in the first place.”_

_A hysterical laugh had fallen from his lips. “Are you kidding?”_

_Perhaps that had convinced his father he was serious because Victor had reached forward to put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t fucking touch me!” he had shouted, stepping backwards._

_“Do not use that language with me, Kristoff!” his father had snapped. “Stop acting like a small child for once in your life and explain what has you so worked up.”_

_He had bitten his lip so hard that he could taste blood. “You murdered Cassie! You… you killed her! She… she was just a teenager…” he had broken off because tears had risen in his eyes and burned his vision._

_“That is what has you so angry?” Victor had seemed completely surprised. “Age means nothing in this life – if she was old enough to put on a costume she was old enough to die.”_

_Kristoff had seen red. He had summoned an explosive spell and sent it hurling towards his father. A mistake, of course – it is near impossible to catch his father off guard with an attack._

_Victor had countered the spell easily, summoning a paralysis spell that froze Kristoff in his place. His father had approached him angrily, his cloak billowing like smoke behind him as he stormed towards him._

_“You dare to attack your father?” Victor had demanded. “Explain yourself!”_

_His father’s spell meant that he couldn’t move his limbs, but he could still speak. He gritted his teeth. “Cassie wasn’t just some random teenager in a costume! She was mine! And you took her away from me!”_

“Why _did_ you forgive him?” Luna asks him, back in the present. “I don’t think I could forgive anyone who killed someone I loved… even my dad.”

Kristoff grimaces. “He _did_ bring her back to life – it’s kinda hard to hold a grudge against someone for a mistake they’ve personally rectified.”

“She’s _alive_?” Luna looks at him with wide eyes. “But… you were talking about her in past tense.”

He smiles sardonically. “Ah, I apologise… it’s a habit. I have not spoken to her for a while.”

“Why not?”

_Why not? How am I supposed to look her in the eyes when both of us know that my father killed her? When the only reason she is alive is because of me? Because my father had the power to change one of the many terrible things he has done in this life and he chose to resurrect Cassie because of me. He did not care that she was dead, that he had killed her – he only cared that I was angry with him about it. How am I supposed to ever look at her again and tell her that I honestly love the man who murdered her?_

He ignores Luna’s question. “Enough about the tragic goings on of my own life – what has your dad done that you think is so unforgivable? I assume that was why you asked me, anyhow.”

Thankfully Luna lets his change of topic slide. She sighs, slumping in her seat. “Yeah… it’s not my dad, though – it’s my mum.”

Her mother – Crystalia Amaquelin of the Inhuman Royal family. _I forgot that Luna was like me – the member of a ruling family._

As far as Kristoff has been able to work out, Luna’s parents have been separated for the majority of her life. Like him, she is split between two worlds. But whereas he is split between a parent he loves and another he despises; Luna is torn between two parents she loves very much. _For once in my life I am grateful that my father has never married._

“What did she do?” he asks, cautiously.

She scowls, and the expression really transforms her face. Generally Luna comes across as a kind angelic teenager with her blonde hair and wide eyes, but when she’s angry she looks completely different. Her eyes burn the strange gold colour that appears when she uses her powers, though he’s noticed that – like now – it happens when she herself feels strong emotions. The rest of her face turns cold and unassuming – if he was not speaking to her, if he was an observer and not a participant to the conversation, he would not be able to guess at all how she was feeling. It is such a strange transformation, but one he himself has mastered over the years too. The ability to present yourself without emotions to those around you is a particularly useful trait when you have families like his and Luna’s.

“When my parents were married,” Luna explains, “and when I was still young… my mum cheated on my dad.” A hateful look crosses her face, “And I don’t mean like a one-off or whatever… she had a full-on affair with some random guy. And I only found this out recently… for so long she let me believe – she encouraged the idea, even – that the reason our family was split up was because of my dad. But it wasn’t! It was all her!” Luna slumps in her seat again, deflated, “I just don’t understand how she could do that to him… and to _me_ – and then she lied about it for so long. No – worse than that, she blamed dad for something _she_ did… made _me_ blame him.” He sees tears well up in her eyes, “I hated him for so long, Kristoff! I blamed him for everything, and it wasn’t even his fault!”

“Oh, Luna,” he says, gently. He sees himself in her so much – blaming herself for things her parents have done, losing herself in her parents’ feuds and feeling like she has to take a side… these are all things he’s been through with his own father. “Come,” he says kindly, beckoning her over to sit with him like she is a small child. “Come and sit with me.”

She follows his summons and stumbles over to him like a new-born animal that hasn’t yet learned to walk. With her she brings a wave of sadness and anger that would have knocked him over had he been standing. He is not wholly unprepared for it, however – he has realised over the course of Luna’s stay in Latveria that she also has the ability to affect the emotions of others and that most of the time this is done unconsciously.

Kristoff holds out his arm so that he can tuck Luna into his side like he is some sort of mother hen. She curls up slightly into his chest – he is taller than her so her face presses against his collarbone, and he feels her tears wet his shirt. He folds both of his arms around her slight frame and holds her against him comfortably, resting his chin gently on the top of her head. “I want you to listen to me very carefully, Luna,” he tells her, not unkindly. “When it comes to your parents, you have to tell them both that you won’t be used as a pawn in their relationship. Whether they realise it or not, I suspect that’s what’s been happening between them in the last couple of years. But you exist independently of them both; _you_ get to decide the boundaries in your relationship with them both, _you_ decide who you want to live with, and _you_ decide if what they’ve done in the past to you is forgivable. Your dad loves you very much and so does – I assume – you mum. But I will tell you something that I have heard my father say on many occasions: _undying love and eternal patience are not the same thing – do not confuse them_.”

“What does it mean?” Luna mumbles into his shirt.

“It means,” he says, untangling her from his arms so that he can look at her whilst he speaks, “that just because you love someone very much – as you love your parents – it does not mean you have to love everything that they put you through; one day your patience will run out, but that does not mean your love has to. What your mother has done seems unforgivable – perhaps you will never _really_ forgive her – but that does not mean you cannot love her still. It is okay to love someone who does bad things, to love them whilst acknowledging the bad things they do. It is difficult, but it can be done – believe me.”

Luna drags a hand across her eyes, “I’m just so _tired_ of them both… it feels like half the time they don’t even remember I _exist_!” her anger burns bright in her eyes, “like… like I’m just some prop they bring out from the attic every time they want to play at being a parent!”

“Well,” he says, carefully, “then you know what you have to do, don’t you?”

She looks up at him, her eyes red. “What?”

He smiles slyly at her. “You have to _make_ them remember you exist – make it so they can’t ignore you.”

Luna blinks several times. “How… how would I do that?”

“Hmm,” he tilts his head, considering. “Well, when I used to want attention from my father I would blow up a couple of his Doombots… but I suppose you don’t really have that option.” He hums, thinking, “and then there was that _other_ time I did some light time-travelling to learn some magicks that father wouldn’t teach me and also messed around with a few of his projects so that he ended up getting arrested by SHIELD all whilst bothering the Fantastic Four because I thought they’d forgotten about me even though I lived with them for a year or two.”

Luna looks slightly in awe of him. She laughs nervously, “I don’t really think I’m up for anything _that_ destructive.”

“Don’t worry,” he tells her, standing up. “I’m sure we’ll think of something.” He moves over to her desk where she’d been sitting previously and looks down to see what she’d been working on. He picks up a sheet of paper with scrawled writing all over it, most of it crossed out in apparent frustration. “Is this homework?” he asks her, turning back around to show her what he’s picked up.

“Huh?” she says, still lost in thought. Her eyes catch on the paper and she lets out a sigh of frustration, “oh, yeah.” She rolls her eyes, “It’s science and I don’t understand a word of it… I haven’t even _lived_ on this planet for most of my life!”

He laughs. “Well, luckily for you I’ve been educated to degree-level in most fields of science curtesy of my father – I think between the two of us we can work it out.”

A grin lights up her face. “Really? Thanks, Kristoff!”

“It’s no problem,” he reassures her, and inside he’s thinking _I’ve always wanted a little sister_.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow this took a while! I had to rewrite the convos w/ Quicksilver & Luna a few times because I felt like they didn't have the vibe I wanted them to have. But we got there in the end!! Where am I going next with this? Absolutely no idea but I have some ideas so we'll see...


End file.
